Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

May 09, 2016

Pluto's icy moon Hydra
Washington DC (SPX) May 09, 2016
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has sent home the first compositional data about Pluto's four small satellites. The new data show the surface of Hydra, Pluto's outermost small moon, is dominated by nearly pristine water ice - confirming hints that scientists picked up in New Horizons images showing Hydra's highly reflective surface. The new compositional data, recently received on Earth, was gathered with the Ralph/Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA) instrument on July 14, 2015, from a dis ... read more

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Comet craters - literal melting pots for life on Earth Geochemists from Trinity College Dublin's School of Natural Sciences may have found a solution to a long-debated problem as to where - and how - life first formed on Earth. In a paper just pub ... more		Airbus Defence and Space to lead TeSeR, next EU project to clean up space Airbus Defence and Space will lead the project TeSeR (Technology for Self-Removal of Spacecraft) team to develop technology to reduce the risk of spacecraft colliding with debris in space. Tog ... more		Clues about Volcanoes Under Ice on Ancient Mars Volcanoes erupted beneath an ice sheet on Mars billions of years ago, far from any ice sheet on the Red Planet today, new evidence from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests. The research abou ... more
				Robot built to aid astronauts nearly ready for Mars A robot developed in Scotland could be ready to set foot on Mars by 2021. Valkyrie, the humanoid is 1.8 meters tall, weighs 125 kilograms, walks on two legs and has arms that can grasp objects - per ... more		Three potentially habitable worlds found around nearby ultracool dwarf star A team of astronomers led by Michael Gillon, of the Institut d'Astrophysique et Geophysique at the University of Liege in Belgium, have used the Belgian TRAPPIST telescope to observe the star 2MASS ... more

Space Tech Expo - Design - Build - Test - Pasadena CA - May 24-26, 2016

The 2016 Transit of Mercury Solar Scientists are accustomed to seeing spots on the sun - irregular islands of magnetism that sometimes erupt, producing strong solar flares. On May 9, 2016, they will see a spot of a very differ ... more		Scientists discover potentially habitable planets Is there life beyond our solar system? If there is, our best bet for finding it may lie in three nearby, Earth-like exoplanets. For the first time, an international team of astronomers from MI ... more		Sidekick autonomy software guides YFQ-42A test mission for CCA program Infleqtion lists shares on NYSE as neutral atom quantum firm Top Chinese gaming companies continue to challenge		MIT compiles list of potential gases to guide search for life on exoplanets A new approach intended to maximize the chances of identifying planets orbiting nearby stars that support life focuses on creating a comprehensive list of the molecules that might be present in the ... more
				DSI and Luxembourg partner to commercialize space resources Asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries, together with the Luxembourg Government and the Societe Nationale de Credit et d'Investissement (SNCI), the national banking institution in Luxembourg, ... more		Proposals to support astronaut health on long missions selected NASA's Human Research Program and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) will fund 27 proposals to help answer questions about astronaut health and performance during future long d ... more

Human 2 Mars Conference May 17-19 2016 - Washington DC

Transition from Operations to Decommissioning by Preparing a Safe, Cost-Effective Shut Down and Waste Management Strategy

The World's Largest Commercial Drone Conference and Expo - Sept 7-9 - Las Vegas

Directed Energy And Next Generation Munitions - 20-22 June - Washington DC

Second ExoMars mission moves to next launch opportunity in 2020 On 14 March 2016, the Roscosmos State Corporation and the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the jointly-developed ExoMars 2016 interplanetary mission, comprising the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and t ... more		Planet Nine: A world that shouldn't exist Earlier this year scientists presented evidence for Planet Nine, a Neptune-mass planet in an elliptical orbit 10 times farther from our Sun than Pluto. Since then theorists have puzzled over how thi ... more		Solar-driven ionosphere charges may nudge stressed faults toward rupture Stable black carbon in mangrove soils boosts coastal climate role Low crystallinity iron minerals show promise for chromium cleanup and carbon storage		Pluto: A Global Perspective NASA's New Horizons mission science team has produced this updated panchromatic (black-and-white) global map of Pluto. The map includes all resolved images of Pluto's surface acquired between ... more
New Elevation Map of Pluto's Sunken 'Heart' This newest shaded relief view of the region surrounding the left side of Pluto's heart-shaped feature - informally named Sputnik Planum - shows that the vast expanse of the icy surface is on averag ... more		Pluto's Interaction with the Solar Wind is Unique, Study Finds Pluto has some characteristics less like that of a comet and more like much larger planets, according to the first analysis of Pluto's unique interaction with the solar wind, scientists say. U ... more		NASA research gives new insights into how the Moon got inked A powerful combination of observations and computer simulations is giving new clues to how the moon got its mysterious "tattoos" - swirling patterns of light and dark found at over a hundred locatio ... more		Interstellar spacecraft sails could slam on Brakes for exoplanet flybys Scientists in the UK and Germany have come up with a quicker way to brake spacecraft on interstellar missions, by combining magnetic and electric sails. Interstellar spacecraft will be able to ... more

	From the atomic to the nuclear clock Measuring time using oscillations of atomic nuclei might significantly improve precision beyond that of current atomic clocks. Physicists have now taken an important step toward this goal. Ato ... more		Stochastic resonance, chaos transfer shown in an optomechanical microresonator Researchers in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered a novel route to encode chaos on light in an optomechanical microresonator system. ... more

AALTO plans Zephyr stratospheric hub in northern Australia and seeks local payload partners

Ancient guano drove Chincha coastal power

UAH lands first DARPA award for biological sciences department

Bee model will help development of aerial robotics		Johns Hopkins scientist programs robot for 'soft tissue' surgery		China's space technology extraordinary, impressive says Euro Space Center director		Light Echoes Give Clues to Protoplanetary Disk		Three Earth-sized planets
Although Boiling, Water Does Shape Martian Terrain		Sea urchin's teeth inspire new design for space exploration device		Boiling water may be cause of Martian streaks: study		Newly developed EOD robot delivered to Army		Phase two of ExoMars mission delayed to 2020

Interstellar EmDrive gets boost from new theory of inertia

Airbus DS to build STEM centre at its UK Exomars facility

Opportunity robotic arm camera passes diagnostic test

Machines can learn to respond to new situations like human beings would

China produces key component for nuclear fusion facility

Hiding in the Sunshine: The Search for Other Earths

On the Road to Finding Other Earths

Elektra: A New Triple Asteroid

Curiosity Mars Rover crosses rugged plateau

Opportunity completes mini-walkabout

Could Earth's light blue color be a signature of life?

China can meet Chile's satellite needs: ambassador

China launches Kunpeng-1B sounding rocket

Discovering the bath scum on Titan

Hubble discovers moon orbiting the dwarf planet Makemake

Are we alone? Setting some limits to our uniqueness

Superfast light source made from artificial atom

Physicists detect the enigmatic spin momentum of light

South China city gears up for satellite tourism

Space X's Red Dragons to start Mars exploration in 2018

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